


By Panacea

by KarieSenkow (MukatKiKaarn)



Series: Crossroads: Tales From the 7th Restricted District [3]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Captivity, F/M, Giant/tiny, Het, Interspecies, Original Universe, Size Difference, Size Kink, Vore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-13 02:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/818948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MukatKiKaarn/pseuds/KarieSenkow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Wehttam is called in to treat a sickly naga kept at a less-than-reputable exotic zoo, and gets into an awkward situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By Panacea

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this way back in college as a ‘get well’ present for my then-fiancee and now wife. This was well before I’d actually developed the actual of characters of Mandiyana and Dr. Wehttam, so to actually go back and redo the story now that I know the characters better was certainly interesting.
> 
> For those new to the Crossroads Universe (i.e., all of you. :P ), this story is set before the other stories I've posted so far in this series by several years.

It was raining in Stackton. It rained often in Stackton.

Topher Wehttam wasn't sure why that was the case; he was a doctor after all, and not a meteorologist. He’d read once, when he was younger, that it was result of the Principle of Inverse Probabilities— that instead of moisture rising up off of the coast and being blocked from traveling further inland by highlands, that the moisture instead settled over the opposite side of downtown. In the strange, upside-down science that dictated nature in the city of Crossroads, it made perfect sense.

Whatever caused the seemingly ever-present rain, though, only seemed to exacerbate the dismal mood of the neighborhood he drove through. Old, tired factories with rust-stained smokestacks and brick walls covered in graffiti lined the narrow streets. Wood panels covered windows in some houses, while iron bars covered others. The streets were otherwise empty, except for the occasional passer-by darting in and out of the rain or sitting, huddled within their coat, under a bus stop. Everything was gray and dingy and the further on he drove, the more he longed to be back in his Garden. For all its dangers, it at least was sunny and warm.

There was work to do here, though. He pulled his van to a stop in front of the large building, sitting sideways in the driver’s seat. The sign above the door declared that the ugly, gray building was the Stackton Garden for Exotic Creatures. Beyond that, though, it looked no different from the rest of the neighborhood. Rough, worn down; hardly a place worthy of housing people. Of course, he thought with a frown, the sort of people who would create a ‘garden’ like this thought the beings they kept were much less than human, anyway.

He sighed and left the van behind him, and headed inside. His patient was inside, waiting for him.

~

The zookeepers stood around as he approached the exhibit he was needed at; a handful of men murmuring among themselves, paying little attention to him. It took a few moments for any of them to look up at him; when one did, it was an older, balding man with a torso like a wooden keg that fit uncomfortably under a plain, white dress shirt. “You must be Dr. Wehttam,” the man said after clearing his throat. The others continued their quiet conversation behind the speaker’s back.

“I am,” said Wehttam, nodding before looking around the zookeeper to the glass wall behind him. “You said you needed my assistance?”

“I do, yes. We have a rather rare beast in this exhibit, and I’d like to get her some medical attention without… needlessly involving the Nexus Corporation.”

_Because keeping an exotic life-form in captivity is illegal_ , Wehttam thought, but kept himself tight-lipped. He approached the glass and looked inside. “So what have we here…”

His eyes opened wide at the sight through the glass.

The creature within, a giant naga of the species _teidesriel_ , the orange-scaled bulk of its tail wrapped in a massive loop around the cramped exhibit. Her humanoid torso lay on its side; her arms wrapped over massive breasts, pinning them against one another. Stands of long, brown hair lay over her cheek and spilled down her back, pooling in a mass of hair that lay on the stone ground under her.

She looked terrible; her skin was pale, and her scales had lost much of their luster. Every so often her body would shake as she erupted into a hacking cough; she would twist the length of her body around, trying to find any comfort in her pen. Wehttam immediately turned away from the window. “Is the floor down there heated?”

The zookeeper stared blankly at him. Wehttam groaned and combed his fingers through long, blond hair. “What about infrared lamps? Teidesriel are warm-blooded, but their native habitat is jungle. They prefer warm, wet surroundings…”

The man shook his head, and Wehttam cursed under his breath. He would not get angry, not yet at least. He needed to tend to his patient first. “Alright. Alright. Let me see what I can do. I’m not used to treating her kind, to be perfectly honest. I will do what I can, though.”

“That’s what we’re counting on. She’s the star of our show, here.” He held out his hand, dropping a set of keys into Wehttam's hands. “If you’ll follow me, sir, I’ll take you to the entrance to her pen.”

He led him along the hallway, the two of them walking past the other two zookeepers on their way into the pen. This time, Wehttam passed close enough to hear the two of them— the men were taking bets on how long he would last alone in the pen with the giant naga.

He shot them a dirty look, then unlocked the entrance to the pen.

~

She seemed even bigger from ground level, he thought as he approached the naga alone— the zookeeper who showed him to the door went no further than the entrance, and quickly shut the door behind him once Wehttam was inside the pen. It only made him hate them all the more, that they thought so little of her that the were betting on his chances of leaving here alive. It was surely how they presented her to the curious on-lookers who visited here: a man-eating monster, the stuff of nightmares.

Only, in her current state, she happened to look anything but ferocious. And that, naturally, was bad for business.

He walked his way along the length of her tail, spiraling further into the pen as he made his way towards her upper half. His hand ran over her scales, frowning at how dry and coarse they felt under his palm, and how dirty. He wondered if they’d even bathed her at any point; the pool at the far end of the pen was just large enough for her to drink out of, and dragging her tail over the hard floor was clearly tearing up the surface of her scales.

Eventually, her scales gave way to smooth skin; the naga seemed malnourished and underfed; probably to heighten how intensely she would attack the glass as people approached to look down at her. Her hip bones started to show, pressing against her skin; her stomach looked sunken in, with little muscle or fat to give it shape. The closer he drew to her head, the more he could hear her whimpers of pain, punctuated by the occasional cough that shook him nearly as strongly as it rattled through her bones. Finally, as he rounded the wall of her chest, he locked eyes with her and smiled. Teidesriel may be carnivorous, he told himself, but devouring him seemed to be the last thing on her mind at that moment.

She coughed again, her arm shifting to point a finger at her throat. “Hurts,” she said, the sound of the ‘s’ vibrating on her tongue. 

“I know.” He knelt down in front of her face, starting to unpack a few things from the bag he’d brought in with him. “The zookeeper here told me that you've been coughing pretty roughly for a while now. Sounds to me like something of a sore throat…”

He looked down at the container full of gel sitting in his bag. Essentially, treating the naga’s condition meant introducing a medication into the upper portion of her throat that simultaneously soothe the pain she was experiencing, as well as fight the infection before it could work its way deeper into her airway. With a creature as massive as she was, though, this meant climbing into its mouth and applying the gel by hand, to ensure that it actually stuck and was absorbed into the affected tissue. The thought of climbing into a predator’s mouth sent a shiver down his spine, but it would be cruel to leave her in the condition she was currently in.

“The thing is,” he continued, replacing his shoes with a set of coverings that would keep him from tracking wherever his feet had been into her mouth. “The thing is, I need you to let me into your mouth. And I need you to promise to let me back out again when I’m done. Do you understand?”

The naga nodded. He took a deep breath and stood atop one of the rocks laying in front of her, holding his bag in one hand as she opened her mouth. A blast of hot, dry air hit him; the surface of her lips looked dry and cracked. The naga’s long, thick tongue rose up slowly out of its bed in the floor of her mouth, its surface pale with sickness as it reached out towards him. Shivering despite the heat blowing out from the cavern in front of him, he took the final few steps towards her and leaned onto her tongue.

“You've been sick for a while, haven't you?” He frowned, looking at the sight in front of him. What little moisture there was in her mouth had settled under her tongue; the muscle itself was dry, her breath stale from lack of moisture. His heart pounded in his chest as he crawled inside, easing his body over his teeth until all of him was laying on his side within her maw. 

It was frustrating. The staff clearly had no idea how to care for a creature like this, and definitely not one as large as this particular naga. While it was, to some extent, understandable— hardly anyone who lived outside the city’s Restricted Districts were even aware that beings like these existed— it was hardly an excuse for how they were treating this naga. If you didn't know how to care for something, you had no business keeping it.

He reached the back of her mouth and opened his bag. First out was his flashlight, which he shone down into her throat. The sight below him made him cringe. The walls of her throat were red and raw, the tissue swollen up, bleeding in places with the tissue had split from the inflammation He adjusted himself until he could reach down inside, pushing the mass of her epiglottis aside enough to look down into the length of her esophagus. His light showed the same damage deeper down, while the naga’s whimpers echoed around his head from the hand exploring her throat.

He pulled his hand back, her airway closing off the passage to her stomach again as a violent cough rattled upwards from her lungs. Wehttam braced himself against her tongue, trying to keep from sliding off prematurely. “Well,” he told himself, taking a deep breath, “I didn’t come here just to look.”

Turning himself around, he eased himself down feet first into the naga’s throat. He gasped as her tongue shifted, her esophagus opening up once again, clearing the way to send him down inside. The doctor yelped, clutching his bag to his chest as he pressed his feet into the walls around him, stopping his descent before he lost control. He gasped for breath, feeling her throat pulsing and trembling around him. It was eerily serene; he could imagine laying here, simply watching the muscles moving. Of course, he reminded himself, it probably was less than wise to linger in the throat of a massive, living predator.

His feet still pressing into the walls to either side of him, he gradually worked his way down to the worst of the damage. The passage of her throat was nearly too tight to move through, the flesh there so swollen and sore. He sighed and, holding his bag between his legs, reached for the jar of ointment inside.

The gel was cool, the smell of mint filling his nose as he scooped the medicine onto his hands. It took only moments for the naga to sigh in relief as the gel sank into her wounds and covered the raw tissue with a new, protective layer. “There we go…” he said quietly. “That feels much better, doesn’t it?”

The walls rippled again, his footing shifting. The doctor panicked, his bag slipping from between his knees and downwards, slipping out of sight as it dropped down towards her stomach. He dropped the jar of medicine as well, throwing his arms out to support himself as the walls pulled away from his feet. “Hey!” he called out, shaking in fear. “We… we made a promise! Please!”

It was too late, though. The medication was starting to work on her thoat, the walls become slick again as saliva started to flow downwards from her mouth. His foot- and handholds became slippery and, little by little, his grip started to fail. “Please!” he called out,trying desperately to push himself back upwards towards her mouth.

Finally, his grip failed entirely and he slid quickly, carried on waves of muscle that— now that they could move without pain— couldn’t help but clear the object stuck in her throat. As far down as he’d traveled to reach the source of her pain, there was no way for the naga’s body to send him but downwards.

He cried out as her body pushed him out of her esophagus and sent him tumbling into the pit of her stomach, where he landed face-first in a shallow pool of saliva. He recoiled and pushed himself up, falling over onto his back.

He was inside a predator’s stomach. In his years as Caretaker of the Gardens, he’d realized the possibility always existed. He dealt with dozens of predators like her, of so many different species, that the chance he’d be eaten always lingered at the back of his mind. To actually be in that situation, though, was another thing entirely.

It was loud and hot, the stagnant air filled with the gurgles and rumbles of her body reverberating around him, the rush of air running through her lungs, the steady beat of her heart overhead. “Someone, help!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, hoping someone outside might hear. “If you can hear me, please help!”

~

The naga sat up, resting back onto her tail. Her stomach rumbled as though she’d eaten, though she couldn’t remember having anything to eat lately. She’d gone without food for days, in fact, and had simply lain in her pain, hurting. Her throat was parched, though, and it hurt just to breathe. She could smell something mint rising up into her nose from deep in her throat, though she wasn’t sure where that had come from, either.

Her tail scraped against the large, flat stones covering the floor of her pen, wincing as her scales rubbed against one another. She dipped her head into the water, her long, brown hair spreading out over its surface as she slurped the cool liquid into her mouth and down her throat. Muscles relaxed as the waters poured into her, further numbing the pain as it flowed into her stomach.

Suddenly, she flinched, and pressed her hand to her stomach. Something inside her was thrashing violently. She sat up, deep in thought as her hand stroked the plain of her abdomen. She hadn’t felt like this in a while, she thought, not since the time she’d grabbed one of the zookeepers in anger and dropped him into her…

Her eyes opened wide, hands rushing to cover her mouth. The doctor! Her mind flashed with the memory of young, blond-haired man who’d come to see her. Her throat was hurting, and he’d come to help her. Tears welled in her eyes; she’d swallowed the man who’d come to help her!

She couldn’t even remember why it was wrong; she was young when she last saw her parents, so many years ago, before flashes of light and the shouting of men took them away from her. Humans were something that kept their distance, that looked at her with fear. This one, though, walked up to her, climbed into her mouth, all with the promise of taking away her pain.

And she ate him.

The pen shook as she slammed her palms onto the ground, tensing the muscles below her stomach as hard as she could. Deep inside her, the organ compacted onto itself, pushing its contents back againt the tensed sphincter sealing her stomach from her esophagus. Her body fought with itself, the naga’s face straining as she pushed the contents of her belly back upwards.

She kept tensing, feeling muscles start to spasm as they were made to work the wrong way. Soon, she registered a lump in her throat, and then in the back of her mouth. Without a second thought, she spit the doctor out into her hand, coughing as she struggled to bring her body back under control. 

Wehttam lay in her hand, himself gasping for breath as he coughed the water out of his mouth. One of her fingers prodded at his side, turning him over until he stared up at her. She smiled down at him, a smile of relief spreading across her face as she saw him start to breathe again. 

“How am I…?”

He breathed slowly, staring up at the massive face that smiled down at him. She’d saved him; the mere idea that something so big, some that that surely would barely feel his presence inside her body. She could have easily never noticed him, or simply not cared enough to cough him back up. In all honesty, consuming him would have helped her recover, especially as underfed as she was.

And she’d saved him. When she never really had to. 

Her hand lowered him to the ground, gently tipping him back onto his feet. He smiled and bowed to her, leaning forward to kiss one of fingers as he returned her smile. “Thank you,” he said. “I owe you for that.”

“Doctor!”

Wehttam spun around at the sound of the service door into the pen slamming open; the zookeeper hurried over the rocks, running towards him. “Are you alright? I just heard about what happened and was trying to see if I could get a hold of anyone who could help extract you…”

Extract. Wehttam grit his teeth. The only types of people that’d be interested in helping the zookeeper are the sort that wouldn’t leave the naga alive afterwards. “I assure you, I’m definitely alright.”

“That’s good.” The zookeeper looked up at the naga, who had gone back to drinking out of her pond. “I appreciate your help, and I assure you, we will send payment for your services as soon as we…”

“I’m not done.” Wehttam narrowed his eyes at the man, taking a step closer to the zookeeper. He stood up tall, still not quite reaching eye-level with the other man, but trying as far as he could. “The conditions this naga is living under is absolutely appalling. She has insufficient food, inadequate grooming and physical care, and the water she’s drinking is probably half the reason she’s sick.”

The zookeeper opened his mouth to speak, but Wehttam threw his hand up between them. “Furthermore, you have absolutely no knowledge of the habitat this species lives in and how to provide a comfortable environment. You’ve done everything possible to make her as miserable as possible, just to make her as aggressive possible for your show.”

“And on top of all of that… on top…” Wehttam continued, again interupting the zookeeper before he could speak. “On top of all of that, this entire facility is illegal. Utterly illegal. And, as a contracted employee of the Nexus Corporation, I am of every mind to contact President Kamaida’s office and have the Office of Municipal Affairs shut this entire facility down. Your naga is coming with me, and I can assure you, everything else in here will probably be coming to once the Company is involved.”

“I…” the zookeeper squawked, wringing his hands. “You don’t have the… you don’t…”

“I’ll have the truck here within the hour to pick her up.” Wehttam said as he stalked past the zookeeper, walking towards the door. “Good day, sir.”

~

Days later, he was riding on her shoulder, laughing as the warm air of the Garden rushed past the two of them.

Once her health had started coming back to her, he managed to learn her name was Mandiyana, though with her propensity for coiling her tail around anything and everything, he quickly took to calling her Mandaconda. She didn’t seem to mind, and even found the name funny.

She also seemed to be getting along well; the other residents of the Garden had taken well to her, and the constant attention— especially after so much solitude— seemed to make her that much happier.

And then their was their own relationship.

He wasn’t sure what to call it. It seemed inappropriate to call it love; they barely understood one another, and barely knew one another. But it was certainly affection, and Mandiyana seemed to crave and delight in having him around as much as possible. She still hadn’t quite learned that lurking outside his bedroom window when he woke up in the morning wasn’t entirely appropriate, but he had at least convinced her not to pull the roof off his home before any major damage had been done.

The ground dropped out from below them, the two of them sailing out through a clearing before crashing down, the giant’s tail pounding into the soil, compacting and denting it down under her weight. He gasped for breath, looking over at her face with cheeks bright red. “Another… excellent landing…” he said, laughing between each breath. “Though maybe… we should take a little rest…”

Instead, he found himself plucked from her shoulder, dangling in the air over her face. Her long, pink tongue peeked out from between her lips, her eyes staring up expectantly at him. The expression was another thing he’d come to learn, and he sighed, nodding down at her. “If you insist…”

She made a sound of delight, and lowered him down until he was just inches above her mouth, her tongue slithering out to wrap, one coil at a time, around his body. Her fingers released him and her tongue drew him inside, brushing him slowly against her lips. She simply held him in her mouth for a few moments as she sat up, sensing the taste of sun-warmed skin through his clothing. He wondered just how well she knew him, knew the shape of him, the feel of his body, from how many times she’d taken him inside like this. 

Her tongue uncoiled, rolling him about over it’s surface, before it lifted up, letting him slip down the tilted plain of her mouth and into the waiting embrace of her throat. Smooth, slick walls wrapped around him, fitting snugly to his body as they pulled him downwards into the warmth of her body.

Smiling, Mandiyana sighed in delight, feeling her passenger settle into her stomach, while Wehttam curled against her. The naga’s tail swept over the ground, giving her the push she needed to start back up over the hill she’d sailed over, back towards his home.


End file.
